The Bossier banner., 1887-10-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Secret of Sue
cess in Life.
The Uses Of Adversely in Refining Mans
Metal and Leading Him to n Higher
Plane-The Universe the Reflex
of Almighty Thought.

Brooklyn and reopened the Tabernacle,
which has been thoroughly renovated. The
subject of his first sermon was 1.-THE Prime
his text being:
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: See. I have
set thee over all the land Of Egypt.-Genesis
xii, 41.
DIR. Talmage said: You can not keep a
good man down. God has decreed for
him certain elevation to which he must
attain. He will bring him through
though it cost him thousand worlds.
There are men constantly in trouble lest
they shall not be appreciated. Every man
comes in the end to be valued at just what
he is worth. How often you see men turn
out all their forces to crush one man or
set of men. How do they succeed? No
better than did the government that tried
to crush Joseph, scripture character
upon which we speak to-day. 1t would
all familiar with the life of Joseph; how
his Jealous brothers threw him into the
pit, but seeing caravan of Arabian m er-
chants moving along on their camels with
spices and gums that loaded the air with
aroma, sold their brother to these mer-
chants, who carried him down into Egypt;
how Joseph was sold to Potiphar,
a man of influence and office;
how by his integrity he raised himself to
high position in the realm, until under the
false charge Of vile wretch he was
hurled into the penitentiary; how in
prison he commanded respect and conf
dence; how by the Interpretation of
Pharoah's dream he was freed and be-
came the chief man in government, the
Bismarck of his time; how in time of
famine Joseph had the control of store
house which he had filed during the seven
years of plenty; how, when his brothers
who had thrown him into the pit and sold
him into captivity applied for corn, he
sent them home with their beasts borne
down under the heft of the corn sacks;
how the sin against their brother which
had SO long been hidden came out at last
and was returned by that brothers for
giveness and kindness, an illustrious
triumph of Christian principle.
Learn from this story, in the first place,
that the world is compelled to honor Chris
tian character. Potiphar was only man
of the world, yet Joseph rose in his esti-
nation until all the affairs of that great
house were committed to his charge. From
this servant no honors or condolences
were withheld. When Joseph was in
prison he soon won the heart of the keep
er, and, though placed there for being a
scoundrel, he soon convinced the jailer
that he was an innocent and trustworthy
man, and, released from close confine-
ment, he became a general superintendent
of prison affairs. Wherever Joseph was
placed-whether a servant in the house of
Potiphar or prisoner in the penit entiary
--he became the first man everywhere,
and is an illustration of the truth I lay
down, that the world is compelled to honor
Christian character.
There are those who affect to despise a
religious life. They speak of 1t as a sys-
tenn of phlebotomy, by which a man is
bled of all his courage and nobility. They
say he has bemeaned himself. They pre-
tend to have no more confidence in him
since his conversion than before his
conversion. But all that is hypocrisy.
1t is impossible for any man not
to admire and confide in Christian who
shows that he has really become a child Of
God and is what he processes to be. You
can not despise son or a daughter of the
Lord God Almighty. OF course half-and
half religious character wins no approba-
tion. Redwald, the King of the Saxons,
after Christian baptism had two affairs
one for the worship of God, and the other
for the sacrifice of devils. You may have
a contempt for such men, for mere preten-
sion of religion, but when you behold the
excellency of Jesus Christ come out in the
life of one of his disciples, all that there
is good and noble in your soul rises up
into admiration. Though that Christian
vSx.a a. fn,s hnt, nn%h ekAA xl,1
Egyptian slave of whom we are discuss
ing, by an irrevocable law of our nature
Potiphar and Pharoah will always esteem
Joseph
Chrysostom, when threatened with
death by Eudoxia, the Empress, sent
word to her, saying: 'sGo tell her that
fear nothing but sin." Such nobility Of
character will always be applauded.
There was something in Agrippa
and Felix which demanded their
respect for Paul, the rebel against govern
ment. ! doubt not that they would will
lingly have yielded their office and di gnity
for the thousandth part of that true heroism
which beamed in the eye and beat in the
heart of the unconquerable apostle. The
infidel and wording are compelled to honor
in their hearts, though they may not
eulogize with their lips, a Christian firm
in persecution, cheerful in poverty, trust
full in losses, triumphant in death.
A man in the cars said: II would like to
become Christian if / only knew what
religion is. But il this lying and cheat.
ing, and bad behavior among men who
profess to be good, is religion, want none
of it.o But, my friends, it am an artist
in Rome, and a man comes to me and asks
what the art Of painting is, must not
show him the daub Of some pretender. /
will take him to the Raphaels and the
Michael Angeles. 1t is most unfair and
dishonest to take the ignom inious failures
in Christian profession instead of the
glorious successes. The Bible and the
church are great picture galleries, filed
with masterpieces.
Furthermore, we learn from this story of
Joseph that the result of persecution is
alleviation. Had it not been for his being
sold into Egyptian bondage by his
malicious brothers and his false imprison-
ment. Joseph never would have become
Prime Minister. Everybody accepts the
promise:
Blessed are they that are prosecuted for
righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of Heaven.
But they do not realize the fact that
this principle applies to worldly as we'll as